Simplemente increíble...

خرجت والدتي مع خالتي لقضاء بعض شؤون ووجدت نفسي صحبة اولاد خالتي 4اطفال.
نشاهد هذا الفيلم مقتبس منها .
استمعت جدا بمشاهدته طيلة ساعة و نصف صحبتهم .
كم اعجبتني جملتها حين قالت :
انا لم اعد لطيفة و ضعيفة.
أصبحت قوية.

و تلك معلمة هايدي كم هي شخصية رائعة .
كم نحتاج لشخص يؤمن بقدارتنا و يشجعنا .
و تلك صداقة بينهم.

I had been right around Matilda’s age when I read this book for the first time, and I was so fascinated by her telekinetic powers and her independence and her willingness to fight back against horrible adults in her life. She was everything I had wanted to be as a child, and I still love Matilda dearly as a character today.

Reading it now as a 23-year-old, this book seems much more like a story about Matilda’s brave and kind school teacher Miss Honey than a story about Matilda. Told from the whimsical perspective of a five-year-old girl, we learn of a deep and dark history of familial abuse that I completely missed as a young reader. I even found myself straight up weeping at one part of the story.

I’m really glad I revisited this novel. It is every bit as charming as I remember it, and I’ve come away with a new perspective that makes me appreciate the story that much more. The illustrations are also my favorite thing!!

(Also, I felt so old when I found out Miss Honey and I are the SAME AGE!!! I thought this lady was at least 40 my whole life and it turns out she’s only 23???? I hate it here.)

n  n
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I can't help but feel that every teen who likes dark academia secretly has a copy of this book moldering somewhere in their bookcase. MATILDA is like the OG dark academia book, and so many things about it shaped tropes I still love today: shy and bookish heroines who are quietly brave; evil schools; strong female friendships; and off the wall crazysauce. It's a scathing criticism of the cruelty of English schools, but it's also a story of female empowerment.



Every once in a while I get criticism for my middle grade reviews. People will say things like, "What do you expect, this is a book for children?" Which, if you ask me, is rather condescending, because it suggests that some authors are assuming children are too dumb to recognize inferior goods when they come across them. Which, to be fair, some don't. There's no accounting for taste. But plenty of middle grade is good and does hold up, so the "it's a book for children and adults shouldn't criticize!" remark really doesn't add up, and age group really oughtn't to be a shield against criticism for things like character development and cohesiveness of the plot. Just my two cents.



MATILDA is one of those rare books where I actually think the movie is better, just because of the casting and how the movie adds some chilling scenes (such as when they sneak into Trunchbull's house) and answers some questions that the book really didn't. I also personally like the ending of the movie better, but I won't say why outright because spoilers. It's the eponymous story of a girl named Matilda who is incredibly brilliant and is already reading things like Dickens and doing large mathematical sums in her head before she even turns five. Her parents are awful people-- the mom makes money from playing bingo and the dad is a shady used car salesman-- and neither of them like her much at all, and at worst, their behavior could be considered neglectful and emotionally abusive.



Before she goes to Crunchem Hall, all of her education was self-taught, mostly from a kindly librarian who helped her pick out famous classics despite being quietly fascinated by her intelligence. School ought to have been the place where she felt like coming home, but because of the sadistic and abusive headmistress, it is a place of terror. I think Dahl did a good job making her seeing fantastically but believably evil. The chokey was always incredibly terrifying: it's a cupboard where Trunchbull would lock up "bad" students. The walls were paved with broken glass and the door had nails in it, so if you didn't stand perfectly straight in the airtight cupboard, you'd get all lacerated. Yikes. Then there's Miss Honey's story and the implied molestation and abuse there, and it's all honestly pretty chilling.



So you can get what happens. Matilda ends up in a war with the Trunchbull. The movie is way more emotionally intense but the book does a great job too and the ending is still pretty satisfying. I loved the characters of Matilda and Miss Honey and I thought Matilda's family was believably awful because we've all met oafish jerks like that. Roald Dahl is a great children's author but this has always been one of my favorite books of his, partially because it's more believable and partially because it features a girl protagonist who is allowed to be strong and victorious, and not beaten down, which makes the story feel both timeless and incredibly progressive, all at the same time.



4 to 4.5 stars

‘There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.’
-Marcel Proust

I loved this book so much as a child that I quite literally named a child after it. Matilda by Roald Dahl is a beloved children’s classic for a reason and one that still warms the hearts of kids and adults today. Who doesn’t love a book that celebrates the empowerment of reading, that tells a story of overcoming tyrants and surviving abuse while retaining a love for the world? Wrap that all up in a story of a girl with magical powers and a will to freedom and love aided by librarians and a caring teacher and you’ve got yourself a winning story. While I noticed some problematic aspects returning to this again as an adult, I was reminded how much this story meant to me as a kid and how much it grew inside me through my whole life.

‘The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.’

For the uninitiated, Matilda is the story of a young girl who ‘longed for a friend, someone like the kind, courageous people in her books.’ Her parents neglect her and are involved in shady dealings, her principal is a nightmare who hates children and loves punishment, but she has discovered her magic powers and will right the wrongs in order to thrive. There is a fantastic film adaptation I used to watch constantly as a kid and this, coupled with movies like The Pagemaster, was an early start to my love of libraries and books. We see how books can comfort the lonely, can inspire and empower, and there’s nothing I love more than the idea that money is not an obstacle to reading when you have a library card. Flash forward to today, I work in a library and in a bookstore and, likely thanks to Matilda, have devoted a large part of my life to getting good books to the people who need them.

‘So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.’

The idea that books remind you ‘you are not alone’ is something that has always struck me hardest. I used to leave favorite poems all over trees for that very reason, to say ‘I was here’ but also ‘you are not alone’ and picked passages that might comfort or inspire. Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish once wrote ‘A poem in a difficult time / is beautiful flowers in a cemetery,’ and I believe this applies to books too. A good book can help in times of need, can comfort, uplift, can be a friend when you need one. And in good times too, a book can elevate your day and be a companion in your mind, something you can’t wait to return and read more. ‘There is no frigate like a book / to take us lands away,’ wrote Emily Dickinson, and Franz Kafka reminds us that a ‘book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us,’ so I have always believed in the power of books. Reading helps build empathy and opens us to new ideas, so read widely and often and definitely read to children if you have any available.

Dahl is a complicated figure, however, and there were some aspects that raised my eyebrow while reading. You can always find discourse on Dahl all over the internet, such as the extremely frustrating fact of his vocal antisemitism, or his use of racist tropes, and claims of fatphobia and misogyny abound. A big debate is often about the way he writes about women, as The Witches is hotly argued, though many consider Matilda to be a feminist work. Sure, we have Ms Honey, a single woman who is able to rise about on her own, and Matilda, a young, determined girl who can overthrow tyrants. But the depiction of Agatha Trunchbull are a bit unpleasant as it seems an anti-lesbian structuring. Called simply by her last name, Trunchbull is vaguely based on Soviet Olympian Faina Melnik and is described as big and bulky and, well, rather masculine. It would seem, as a contrast to Ms Honey, that Dahl finds women acceptable only if they perform femininity in the “right” way. Trunchbull is pretty blatantly queer and he depicts her in a way that is very similar to accusations thrown against queer women at the time, such as wanting to destroy the nuclear family (after the children spell ‘difficulty’: ‘Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI, Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY,’ Trunchbull is outraged and snaps ‘why are all these women married?’) and for not being sexually desirable the way society thinks they should be. It all seemed a bit off, and a quick internet search showed I wasn’t alone in thinking this, so, as a queer person myself, that's a bit of a bummer. The book does focus on breaking the cycle of child abuse and a lot of it is very good, but this was rather awkward as an adult. Also the reading list in the book is very much white, male cannon. So take that as you will, I still find the book worth reading and enjoyable, and I have to give a hand to Pam Ferris for a knockout performance as Agatha Trunchbull in the film. Separating art from an artist is something that people will do at their own comfort level and we should give space for everyone for that.

This book looks at the mentality of ‘I'm right and you're wrong, I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it,’ and tells it to sit down and shut up. This is an underdog story (well, an underdog with magic) and one that celebrates reading. I loved Matilda as a child and now look at me, I’m writing about books constantly of this website hoping people might see them and be inspired, and spending my working hours getting books into people’s hands. Books, they are the coolest.

3.5/5

What a delight.

Improving my English with children's books. The first time I read this book, it was very difficult for me as I understood almost nothing. So, I watched the movie and managed to understand the story very well. Now, after 2 ½ years, I read it again with the help of a youtube audio and it was much easier for me to comprehend the meaning of the words in English. I love this book because my parents were almost like Matilda's parents. They thought that girls should not study, they should only be concerned with finding a husband. This is one of my favorite books of all time.

A favourite at our house. My daughter's absolutely loved this book.

I would like to write about how great this book is, but I think my 8-year old daughter does a much better review. She read the book aloud to my wife and me on our long road trip this week.

The non sequitur moment in her review brought to you by Spice, the howling cat.

Oh, and yes - Spoilers abound.

n  “The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”n

No matter how many books of his I will read, nothing (and I repeat nothing) will top Matilda for me.

I think we can all agree that Matilda is a bookworm’s patronus. How can you not love her? She’s quiet, polite, intelligent, and loves books. She loves nothing more than to sit in her room with a cup of cocoa and read all afternoon. Basically us, right? When I first read this when I was younger, there wasn’t a character that I could more identify with than Matilda. Matilda is an extraordinary child with an extraordinary mind, and yet she’s stuck with two parents who not only fail to recognize her talent, but demean her in every possible way.

n  ”Matilda was, above all, brilliant. Her mind was so nimble and she was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious even to the most half-witted of parents. But Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter. To tell the truth, I doubt they would have noticed had she crawled into the house with a broken leg.”n

And yet she never gives up. She fights back and takes charge of her own future, despite how young and little she is.

Despite how depressing Matilda’s situation is, this book is nothing short of hilarious. I can see why kids love it, but this is one of those books that is truly timeless, reaching across all age levels. Adults will especially find humor in it (I found it particularly funny in the beginning. Can Roald Dahl attend every parent teacher conference ever for poorly behaved children?) The humor is raucous and ‘laugh until you’re peeing your pants’ funny. It seems that Mr. Dahl took little Matilda’s advice and adapted the mantra ‘go big or go home’ when it came to humor. The adventures she has both in her books and inside the school where she attends are ones that will appeal to small children and us adults who come back time and time again to read of Matilda’s adventures.

And who could forget the Miss Trunchbull? Despite the fact that she’s absolutely, completely off her rocker, she’s a riot. From her devious punishments so outlandish that no one would ever dare believe her, to her off-color insults she so freely hands to her students, you can’t bear to read about what she does next, but at the same time are mentally eating the popcorn you don’t have wondering what in heaven’s name she’s going to do next.

Like Donald Trump. Hell, even the names are similar. I’m obviously onto something here right. RIGHT?!!

But underneath it all, this book is a love story. Not your average, typical love story. It’s a love story about learning, and specifically, the selfless individuals who devout their lives to teaching. And in creating Miss Honey, Roald Dahl created the teacher we all wish we had, and the kind we wish to be.

n  ”There is no doubt she possessed that rare gift for being adored by every small child under her care. She seemed to understand totally the bewilderment and fear that so often overwhelms young children who for the first time in their lives are herded into the classroom and told to obey orders. ”n

The kind of adult that all children can turn to when their lives are crappy and miserable. The ones who truly care about the profession and deserve more money than they’ll ever make. The author must have had some truly wonderful teachers in his school years for him to develop and write with such respect and grace the character of Miss Honey.

So while Matilda may seem on the surface a story about a girl and her books, it’s so much more than that. It’s about kids wanting to be seen and loved by the people around them. It’s about the little man fighting back against the big bully. It’s about rallying together and finding creativity in everything. But most importantly, it’s about a girl who despite everything not being in her favor, finding the joy in the one constant in her life: books.

And hopefully along with Matilda, we can too.
n  n

I remember reading Matilda as a child... and back then I had a lot of questions:
How did Matilda learn to add very large numbers?
Why can't I add large numbers like Matilda?
Is it really ok to get back at your parents when you think they did something wrong?
Are there really people like "The Trunchball"?
Can I have superpowers like Matilda?
Why am I not allowed to go to the library by myself when Matilda can clearly manage by herself?
And lastly,Can adults really be that clueless and stupid?

But reading this now just made me:
LAUGH



LAUGH





AND LAUGH SO HARD I COULD CRY





AND THANK YOU, ROALD DAHL, FOR SENDING SUCH A LOVELY MESSAGE

This is Roald Dahl at his very best - a classic children's book that all adults should read too!

The characters, narrative and illustrations (Quentin Blake) all combine to produce something so wonderful that it could have been made in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

The film and stage adaptations are both very good, but the book (as is so often the case) is still so much better.